A refrigerator is an appliance used for storing food or other items at low temperature, e.g., in a frozen or refrigerated state.
The interior of a refrigerator is cooled by circulation of cold air which can be continuously generated as a refrigerant recycles through compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation cycles. Cold air supplied in the refrigerator is uniformly distributed by convection.
A refrigerator typically includes a main body having a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a front opening. A refrigeration compartment and a freezer may be disposed in the main body, each covered by a door. Drawers, racks, storage boxes and the like for sorting and storing different kinds of items may be disposed in the internal storage space of the refrigerator.
In general, a top-mount-type refrigerator has a freezer located on top of a refrigeration compartment. In contrast, a bottom-freezer-type refrigerator has a freezer located under the refrigeration compartment. This enables a user to conveniently access the refrigeration compartment. However, on the other hand, this may be inconvenient for a user to access the freezer, if the user has to bend or lower to reach, e.g., to take out ice pieces.
Some bottom-freezer-type refrigerators have an ice dispenser disposed in a refrigeration compartment door located at the upper side of the refrigerator. In this case, an ice-making device for supplying ice may be disposed in the refrigeration compartment door or the interior of the refrigeration compartment.
In a refrigerator with an ice maker, a water supply connector is typically disposed in an upper portion of a rear wall of the refrigerator to supply water to the ice maker. However, the water supply connector is usually ineffective in providing a water seal. For example, if ice forms in an internal water supply route coupled to the ice maker, water may flow backward to the water supply connector and may leak out to the outside along the rear wall of the refrigerator. Water leakage may infiltrate into a power supply unit of the refrigerator, causing a short circuit and even a fire accident.
Furthermore, due to water backflow to the water supply connector, the amount of water supplied to the ice maker may fluctuate. This may cause the size of the produced ice to be non-uniform.
Moreover, conventionally, the water supply connector is made of soft components which need to be deformed to fit in a water supply hose. Sometimes, excessive insertion of the water supply hose may cause poor water supply.